Monday, 25 January 2016

Orange day

The orange
day is part of a campaign started by UNiTE to put focus on Gender based
violence and to ensure that violence against women is at the top of national
and global agendas. The Orange day is a day to raise awareness and prevent violence
against women and girls, using the color orange to symbolize
a brighter future without violence.

According
to UNwomen a staggering one in three women have experienced physical or sexual
violence in their lifetime. Violence can negatively affect women’s physical,
mental, sexual and reproductive health, and may increase vulnerability to HIV.

In September
2015, a new global agenda was created; the Sustainable Development Goals, which
takes over from the MDGs. The SDG is a set of 17 global goals that applies to
all countries and will guide policy and action. These goals makes gender
equality and women’s empowerment a key priority and includes specific targets
to end violence against women and girls.

End all forms of discrimination against all women and
girls everywhere.

Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation

Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life

Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

-The SDGs correlates with the work of Female Student network Trust.

We work to
empower female students through capacity building and leadership trainings. We
think that female students have the same capabilities as their male counterparts.
We want to see more females as leaders of student unions and SRCs.

We also work
for the implementation of Sexual Harassement policies at TEI’s.

In 2015 we
conducted a national baseline survey on Sexual Harrasement in Zimbabwes tertiary
institutions. The research
was done in 21 institutions across the country. Only 4 out of 21 institutions
had sexual harassment policies in place!

The
findings reveal that SH is very rampant in TEIs. Many female studenst reportet
to have encountered Sexual Harassment in different forms, like unwanted and
uninvited physical contact (touching, patting, hugging), inappropriate remarks,
wolf whistling and offers of favors, unwanted unprotected sex and even rape. The
perpetrators are mostly male students, male lecturers and non-academic staff at
campus.

Findings
suggest that many female students fail to live their college lives fully,
making life style adjustments because of fear of SH in their living and
learning environments. Many avoids participation in SRC and other institutions
because of fear of being victimized and harassed by fellow students.

Absence of
SH policies means there are limited gender sensitive formal frameworks for use
in interventions aimed at creating a violence and harassment-free learning
environment for male and in particular female students. Having a SH policy will
make it easier for students to report issues relating to SH and will contribute
to creating a safe learning environment for students.

Men and
boys also have a responsibility and a role to play as agents of social and
cultural change, and in speaking out against violence against women and girls. FSNT encourages male (and female) students to be supporting towards your fellow female
students in order to create equal opportunities for participation for leadership positions and decitionmaking processes.

In 2016 FSNT is committed to continue our work for the empowerment of female students and to
work towards all institutions implementing a sexual harassment policy!